The Penang government is ramping up its efforts to ensure balanced development on the island and mainland through multiple authorised platforms. Can you tell us more about the progress?
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00:00 Undeniably, I think the island was developed first, many years ahead of the Sebrang Prairie.
00:23 But if you look at industrial estate that I talked about just now, we celebrated 50
00:31 years of industrialisation.
00:33 We have about seven to eight industrial parks in the state that accommodate 300 over MNCs
00:46 and 4,000 over SMI, SME in the whole state.
00:53 But where do you find the industrial park?
00:56 On the island, that is just the Bayang Lepas Industrial Park.
01:01 But the rest are all in Sebrang Prairie, beginning from Makmandin, if you are familiar with Penang,
01:07 Makmandin, Prai, Puket Tengah, Pematan Tinggi, Puket Minyak, and the newer ones, Penang Science
01:21 Park North, Penang Science Park South, Wadoh, Patukawan, Bayram.
01:29 All these are in fact on Sebrang Prairie.
01:34 And with the better road system, North Sub Highway, Butterworth-Kulim Expressway, I said
01:47 a few years back that the future of Penang is in Sebrang Prairie.
01:53 And more development will happen in Sebrang Prairie, but there are also the infrastructure
01:59 challenges that we need to resolve.
02:03 When you talk about land availability, definitely we have to look over to the Sebrang Prairie
02:11 side because Penang Island definitely has this great constraint for land to be available
02:20 for development purpose.
02:24 And we, until now, have not approved a lot of projects in Balik Pulau side.
02:36 Balik Pulau remains what it is, although there are some housing projects coming into Balik
02:43 Pulau as well.
02:45 But if it's for industrial, commercial, we definitely have to look at Sebrang Prairie.
02:51 So moving forward, I think it is not only island and Sebrang Prairie, the need to strike
03:02 a balance.
03:03 Even in Sebrang Prairie itself, there is also disparity between Sebrang Prairie North, Sebrang
03:12 Prairie Central, and Sebrang Prairie South.
03:15 So I think each district will be given due attention because we need to create opportunity
03:25 for jobs, business opportunity as well.
03:30 So a lot more attention will be focused on Sebrang Prairie.
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